Thoughts on Popular Culture and Unpopular Culture by Jaime J. Weinman (email me)

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

In Which I Miss the Point of a Movie

DVD Beaver has some screenshots from Seduced and Abandoned, from Criterion's new DVD; this was the follow-up by Pietro Germi to his surprise blockbuster hit Divorce Italian Style, and it's another dark satire on sexist "codes of honor" in Southern Italy; in Divorce it was the law that allowed a man to serve a lighter sentence if he killed his wife in defence of his honor, and here it's the rules surrounding "dishonored" women. It has a little more heart than Divorce Italian Style, because Germi shows a bit more sympathy for at least some of the characters (and doesn't tell the story from the point of view of a creep, the way he did in Divorce), but it's a similar movie and equally entertaining. And another important and very good thing it shares with Divorce is the presence of Stefania Sandrelli.

But what I wanted to call attention to was the trailer, which is included as an extra on the DVD. Not only is it a very long trailer -- beginning and ending with longish excerpts from the film, instead of just having short clips -- it's narrated entirely in rhymed verse. (And in an Italian verse form that's centuries old, yet, the ABBC rhyme scheme that Italian opera librettists were in love with.) I'm sure I've heard other trailers narrated in rhyme, but I can't think of any at the moment -- any thoughts?